Submission on Children, Young Persons, and their Families (Youth Court Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill

This submission supported some of the proposals in this Bill, principally that the Youth Court should address the underlying causes of offending, and opposes other proposals such as the introduction of military-style activity camps.

This submission supported some of the proposals in this Bill, principally that the Youth Court should address the underlying causes of offending, and opposes other proposals such as the introduction of military-style activity camps. The submission pointed to research evidence that the most successful programmes for dealing with youth offending are those that address all the youth’s risk factors, including family, school, peers and neighbourhood. The submission also supported longer supervision orders and parenting orders. We did not support lowering the age of the Youth Court Jurisdiction to 12 and 13 year olds, intensive supervision, and curfews with electronic monitoring.